Peru cocaine smugglers Paul Smith, Jeffrey Sagar lose Qld appeal bid

They tried to smuggle 600kg of drugs into Queensland. Now they claim the jury got it all wrong.

The cocaine was intended to arrive in a shipping container and be concealed in pallets of jam jars, but the drugs were missing when it arrived.

The drug smugglers behind an international conspiracy to bring $90m worth of cocaine into Queensland claim the jury got it wrong, in an appeal to overturn their convictions.

Paul Michael Smith, 65, and Jeffrey John Sagar, 70, were sentenced to 50 years’ jail collectively in 2023 over their failed attempt to smuggle 600kg of drugs into the country, including one attempt involving a plan to conceal the drugs in jam jars.

The men tried on two separate occasions to import drugs from Peru to Papua New Guinea, then across the Torres Straight into the tiny town of Bamaga in The Cape York Peninsula in 2018.

Smith and Sagar were charged with conspiracy to import commercial quantities of drugs and found guilty by a jury in Brisbane Supreme Court in 2023.

Sagar was sentenced to jail for 24 years, with a non-parole period of 12 years.

Jeffrey Sagar at Brisbane Supreme Courts. Photo: Annette Dew

Smith was sentenced to 26 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 16 years.

In a Court of Appeal decision – published last week – the pair appealed their convictions last year claiming the jury’s verdicts were unreasonable and could not be supported having regard to the evidence.

They argued the jury couldn’t be sure that the goods they were trying to import was cocaine as the term was never explicitly used in communications about the shipment.

In January 2018, the men had planned to import 300kg of drugs from Peru into Queensland, via Papua New Guinea, concealed in a shipment of jams.

The cocaine was intended to arrive in a shipping container and be concealed in pallets of jam jars, but the drugs were missing when it arrived.

The drugs were missing when the shipment arrived in Port Moresby, with evidence on the shipment seals that the consignment had been tampered with before arrival.

Arrangements were quickly made and within 20 days another import had been organised.

The documents state the men communicated in code, mainly through encrypted messaging and “draft dropping” – where they left messages in the draft of an email without ever sending it to anyone.

In those messages, Smith and his counterpart in Papua New Guinea, Charles Wagambio, organised the imports, with one message from Smith saying: “[g]oods are under the floor in container … pure blocks my friend not in fruit tins…”.

Another message said: “what are u happy with transporting at one time … U will have 300kg to deal with” and “[t]his is a great opportunity my friend … they are ready to move on to the next 300kg as well”.

Wagambio’s reply said: “Blocks is fine bro, it can be done” and “[It’s] moving it from Daru to Bamaga on a dingy is the issue. I think it can take 250 kgs but I will check and confirm. For now [let’s] plan to move 300 kgs right through to Bamaga”.

Wagambio was sentenced to more than 11 years’ jail after pleading guilty to conspiring to import cocaine and dealing in the proceeds of crime.

Other evidence told to the jury included the shipment being from Peru – one of the main countries where cocaine is cultivated – and Wagambio’s police statement saying he used the word “gold” as code for cocaine with Smith.

A police photo alleged to be of Jeffrey Sagar meeting with co-accused Paul Michael Smith in 2018.

Court of Appeal Justices John Bond, Peter Flanagan and Sue Brown said based on the evidence, the only rational inference was that the contents of the shipment was cocaine.

“It was plain that the jury could readily have reached the conclusion that the jam was imported to disguise an illegal product which was concealed amongst the jam and that significant efforts had been undertaken to make the import of jam look to be a legitimate business transaction,” they said.

“While the illegal product was never named in communications or said to be a border controlled drug, there was evidence from which the jury could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the product was a border controlled drug given the nature of the operation.

“I do not find that the verdict was unreasonable or could not be supported by the evidence.”

Both appeals were dismissed.

Originally published as Peru cocaine smugglers Paul Smith, Jeffrey Sagar lose Qld appeal bid